Usually, talking about making sequels to a film that’s still about two months from release would constitute extreme over-confidence. But, usually, those movies aren’t part of the X-Men franchise, a tried and true property that’s already had four successful films with more currently in development. The latest one, X-Men: First Class, is scheduled for release on June 3 and will serve as a prequel to all of those other films, telling the story of two very important mutants – Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) – as they begin to form their opinions, and factions, in the 1960s. Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) and producer Bryan Singer (X-Men) sat down with Total Film and once again threw around some ideas for potential sequel jump off points. Read what they had to say after the jump.

First Class is similar to Batman Begins, where you have the fun of introducing the characters and getting to know them, but that takes time. But with the second one you can just get on with it and have a rollicking good time. That’s the main difference between Begins and The Dark Knight.

So does that mean they’ve already started talking about a second film? Yes, and a third one as well. Bryan Singer said that they’ve discussed how the upcoming sequels could take place in the 1970s and 1980s respectively:

That’s an idea that’s been discussed. How the characters go through time. But only to a point – they can’t age too fast!

But don’t rule out staying in the 60s, according to Vaughn:

1962 is far more grounded in the world of the ’50s. I think it takes about five years for a decade to really start getting its identity, so the fun thing about this for me would be doing [a sequel] in the latter part of the decade, where you’ve got The Stones, The Beatles, Flower Power…

Star James McAvoy has his own idea of what should happen in a sequel and, of course, it has to do with his character:

In First Class [Xavier] uses Cerebro for the first time and maybe it unlocks something in his head – maybe he can’t keep the voices out or something. So in the second movie his journey could be about getting himself out of a mess. And then in the third movie he becomes… Patrick Stewart!

Odds are this is just Vaughn, Singer and McAvoy having fun as fans of the franchise but they certainly have more influence than the typical fan so it’s worth thinking about. Do you think X-Men: First Class will spawn a sequel and, if so, how far do you think it’ll go?